


Outside the Box

by Kalypso



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 14:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalypso/pseuds/Kalypso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative ending for <i>His Last Vow</i> - what I actually thought Lestrade would see on the pub TV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside the Box

Lestrade glanced up at the TV over the bar. Some European game - Inter Milan? He checked the corners of the pub, surreptitiously, for Anderson. The gloating over his successful prediction of Sherlock's return had worn off, eventually. But Sherlock disappearing again, a couple of months ago, had triggered a fresh round of conspiracy theories. Lestrade had an inkling - John had muttered something about undercover work in Eastern Europe - but if that was true he was hardly going to let Anderson spread it round the 221Believer chatrooms.

The TV commentator's voice rose in excitement, and Lestrade looked up just in time to see Inter go one down. Rather impressive, on the replay - a spectacular left-footed overhead volley from outside the box.

And then Lestrade's jaw dropped as he glimpsed the Sparta Prague striker, scowling through his team-mates' embraces.

 

Mycroft Holmes had never paid much attention to association football. But, recently, he had been taping Sparta Prague's matches for perusal at his leisure. It seemed that the scout who had once tried to sign his brother had been right about "a natural talent", after all. Sherlock had scorned the offer, understandably. But, when MI6 had heard rumours of a match-fixing ring linked to arms-trafficking across a few of the old Warsaw Pact states, Mycroft thought he knew someone who could put in the bootwork.

**Author's Note:**

> The scoreline on the pub TV was SFC 0-0 INTER. One of the football strips did indeed match Inter Milan, but I couldn't work out who SFC were, and FC suggests an Anglophone club. I might have guessed Southampton, but couldn't find them among teams Inter have played in Europe. They played a friendly for the sesquicentenary of Sheffield FC (not United or Wednesday, the older one) a few years ago, but Sheffield wore maroon. In any case, I needed an East European team including an S whose home strip features red shirts and white shorts, and the likeliest suspects I could find on said list of Inter Milan's European opponents were Sparta Prague and CSKA Sofia, neither of which is SFC but I wasn't going to let that stop me.
> 
> PS With the help of Athelas and friend, I've concluded that the match really _was_ Sheffield FC's sesquicentenary, as reported [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A28920549), and that the shirts on-screen are maroon after all. Oddly enough, there was a Holmes in Sheffield's starting line-up. Perhaps Mycroft was using Eastern Europe as code for "South Yorkshire, with a six-year time-shift".


End file.
